The Africa Trilogy
The Africa Trilogy is a trilogy of albums (or, as considered in some cases, a triple album) by President Nasty and Cool Funkle. The album is almost entirely made of Mixcraft 6/8-provided samples, with consistent samples appearing in multiple tracks and even, in some cases, across albums. The greatest examples of this are the "Big K.O." vocal samples and the heavily distorted samples of elephant trumpet growls, the latter of which often being used as a sudden "jumpscare" due to its loud volume. Also prevalent is the usage of effects in the tracks. This ranges from small, barely noticeable chorus effects to blaring, loud distorted "earrape" audio, among others. The distortion usage makes certain segments hard to listen to because of the volume, as is the intent, making the entire trilogy a challenging release to sit through in comparison to the rest of the Mein Studios music releases. History and Development Part 1: Dub Africa The first conception of the trilogy began when Cool Funkle obtained Mixcraft 8 on his computer, before messaging President Nasty late at night and informing him that he was making an African song. After several demos (several of which ended up being used), Funkle then asked Nasty to put in a word for Derrikson to help with the artwork, prompting Nasty to get involved with the project for arrangement. Later that night, Nasty and Funkle immediately formulated the rest of the project within 4 hours, the result being the 20-minute short album Dub Africa, ''the first entry in the trilogy. The decision was made to make it part of a trilogy that night after finishing. In the development, the only guideline was to have an aspect of African tribal music in some way in the music. Following this, a clear creative difference was formed, in which Funkle would make short, one-genre "bursts" that often included louder blasts of noise in the middle or end of the tracks he made, such as ''Afro Mode being jazz with loud, blaring bass kicks at the end and Super Fuck Rapping being a fast, blaring collage of high-pitched saxophone and overwhelming bass patterns. Nasty, on the other hand, ended up making most of the later songs, his creations often having multiple, suddenly-changing genres and longer lengths. Examples of this are in Ambush and Loop (Trailblazer), in which the two randomly change tones and styles with no forewarning or transition, Upon being informed of the album, Derrikson expressed special interest in the its artwork, opting to direct videos for all of the songs, although this was later shortened to only five of the tracks due to time constraints. The selections were the tracks Afro Mode, Super Fuck Rapping, The Tension, Vietcongo ''and ''Loop (Trailblazer). In the span of late April-early May, filming took place for the tracks selected. The first two were filmed in early May, being Vietcongo and The Tension, although only Vietcongo was edited at the time, being the first to have the grainy grayscale-and-interlacing filter that the rest of the videos would follow (although with modification that would make them brighter). The rest of the videos, for Afro Mode, Super Fuck Rapping ''and ''Loop (Trailblazer) were filmed and completed, while The Tension was edited, on May 10th. The same day, the artwork for the album was also created, with Nasty and Funkle showing approval (as well a bystander, Mr. Serf, who was there for the filming.) After rendering and finalizing, the videos were finally complete, being uploaded and ready for release that evening with the full album video being finished as well. That night, the album itself was prepped and readied for release, with the track videos being released at 11PM (acting as early-listen singles) and the full album being released at midnight, marking a May 11th, 2019 release date officially. Part 2: The Old Elephant Blues After Dub Africa was completed, the decision was made to work on the second part of the trilogy the week after Dub Africa was released. This plan went through, with Nasty and Funkle meeting in late May to record what would become part 2 of the now-established Africa Trilogy. The recording happened in a span of several hours, much like the previous album, using the same Mixcraft-provided sample style of arrangement as with before. This time, rather than the short, 20-minute straight-to-the-point style of arrangement used in Dub Africa, part 2 instead had longer tracks, with the shortest track being over a minute and a half (created by Funkle, no less) and the longest running at almost 11 minutes, with the rest ranging between those lengths. The style of arrangement was relatively the same as Dub Africa, with Funkle continuing his trend of shorter songs and Nasty following his own mark of longer, shifting ones, albeit with longer tracks overall for the both of them. What did change, however, was the style and tone. Instead of African elements, part 2 took on blues influence, normally in the first parts of the songs, whether that be in the form of a guitar solo or full-on instrumental sections of them. Adding to this, the tone switched from light-hearted playful bursts to darker, almost "sadder" tracks that aren't quite as playful as the preceding part's songs. Another change in style was the way the "tricks" were hidden; several of the longer tracks have repeated loops for the majority of the length, especially in the nearly 11-minute long Sad in which the first two minutes are traditional music, while the last 8-9 minutes are simply a looped crunk beat with absolutely no differences throughout. According to Nasty, this made listening through the album "hellish to listen to: and "contributed to most of the length". Faded and Motion feature similar pranks, although the latter has an actual ending segment, Another thing that changed was the frequency and usage of louder parts, AKA the "earrape" segments. Instead of being rarely used and spared for endings, they began to be placed throughout almost all of the songs, best demonstrated in the opening, Jonny Boy, ''with several earrape-level "cuts" within the second half and, most notably, a loud, horribly distorted elephant trumpet growling at the end. The latter sample would be used throughout part 2, closing off almost half of the songs on the album, usually amped to loud volumes and paired with heavy distortion and reverb, as well as the occasional distorted sound effect layered over the already-blaring elephant trumpet sample. The rest of the album's development was not much different, with Nasty and Funkle trading off to make every other song. The album was completed the day it was started, being named ''The Old Elephant Blues ''("elephant" being in reference to the elephant trumpet sample used extensively) with Derrikson being informed and a plan being made to film and create artwork. The plan was to film two weeks after the day the album was completed, and thus the wait began. However, only days before the time came, Funkle ended up having to cancel his appearance. The reasoning for this, according to Nasty, was because "some people have a job to do." Disappointed, Nasty and Derrikson agreed that an early release was the best way to guarantee it was released at all, creating artwork out of scrap photos taken from the album's development period and prepping the album quickly, scrapping videos in favor of the release. After release, Nasty was somewhat frustrated with the lackluster release, finding it underwhelming and wanting to rectify it by making the third part the best of the trilogy, feeling he needed to take matters in his own hands due to his creative partner's absence. ''The Old Elephant Blues was released on June 2nd, 2019. Part 3: Dragon Chaser After the cancellation of the videos (and general post-release support) for The Old Elephant Blues, Mr. Nasty took matters into his own hands after a quick realization that his partner-in-crime would be willingly absent for the most part afterwards. Frustrated, Nasty pushed on, and development began on the third part of the Africa Trilogy, with only him at the helm this time around. The development period of the album was far more checkered than the two albums preceding it. For the third part, most of the tracks were made on their own on different days, making them more polished in comparison to the material in its predecessors. This led to a production time of the entire summer of 2019, with its completion marked in late August. Several of the productions in the then-nameless Part 3 were continuations of older concepts; Disco Banger was the followup to Club Banger from The Old Elephant Blues; Blues Time was intended as the plug to the style and theme of The Old Elephant Blues; Sprint ''was the sequel to ''Speedwalk ''from ''The Old Elephant Blues, which was already a sequel to Run from Dub Africa; Ambush 2 ''was a direct recreation of ''Ambush ''from ''Dub Africa; perhaps the most obviously, Fresh Reminder ''is a noise collage of sections of the first two parts of the trilogy, in order. The album's arrangement style followed that of Mr. Nasty's input on ''The Old Elephant Blues, being mostly comprised of longer, complex multi-genre tracks; adding to this is the return of the distorted elephant trumpet from The Old Elephant Blues, albeit used more sparingly and, at times, without any distortion or major volume gain. Like Dub Africa, there are often listenable pieces blended with the loud parts, in contrast to the preceding part's rarity of enjoyable segments; most notably, Ambush 2 ''completely lacks any distortion or loud volumes, much like the original ''Ambush from Dub Africa. After completion, the album totaled at 57:16, nestling it right below the length of The Old Elephant Blues (which ran to 62:35, part in due to three of the tracks mainly consisting of several-minute long loops) and far above the length of Dub Africa (which ran to 21:32, the shortest album released by Mein Studios thus far). This brought the total time of the full trilogy up to 2:21:17, making it the longest release on Mein Studios (when bundled together as the full trilogy). Nasty, now looking at the album in retrospect, formulated the story soon after. The story became that the album was set a year after the events of Dub Africa and The Old Elephant Blues. In the Congo, the setting for the entire trilogy, several civilizations (including the ones involved in the war in Dub Africa) are rebuilding after a mass country-wide invasion from an unknown species. This species was referred to as "The Dragons", partly due to their incredible strength and abilities that far surpassed those of the inhabitants of this rendition of the Congo, as well as their often-glowing appearance (being compared to glow of a dragon's flames). During the events of this part of the trilogy, the "Dragons" have been mostly cleared by external forces, with few stragglers left behind. This is where the protagonist comes in: The Dragon Chaser, as his nickname became, was someone who was self-tasked with eradicating all of the remaining Dragons. The album is based around his ongoing hunt, ending with the killing of the final pack of Dragons in Straight Knockout. The album was then proposed to Toby Derrikson for artwork approval, who gladly accepted. Derrikson created and provided several pieces of artwork, including a front and back cover, all of which have been used for the album in some form. In addition, Derrikson directed videos for Wipeout and Warehouse, the first videos in the Africa Trilogy since Dub Africa's promotional singles were released. After consideration, part 3 was then suitably named Dragon Chaser, and was released on November 8, 2019, alongside a "definitive" release of the full trilogy that includes a bonus album of unused material and B-sides from throughout the trilogy's development. The Orphans The Orphans is the title of an unofficial fourth part of the Africa Trilogy, consisting of unused material and B-sides that were "orphaned" and collected from across the trilogy. Most of the material is dated from around the time of the Dub Africa and Dragon Chaser sessions, with the exception of some (like Smack) that come from between those two. There is no material extracted from sessions for The Old Elephant Blues. The backgrounds of each track are: * The Bone Zone: Specially made for The Orphans, the only track that was made specifically for the album. * DUB AFRICA: Originally intended to be a title track for Dub Africa, unused due to being "too much". * Epic Trap Rapping Take: Made during the Dragon Chaser era, left out because it "didn't flow well". * Funky Vocal Test Dub Africa: Recorded for Dub Africa, before Big K.O. was solidified as a vocalist for the Africa Trilogy. * Pen Destruction: Demo from Dub Africa, unused due to ruining flow, similar to Epic Trap Rapping. * Dub Africa 2.0: Intended as an alternate for the unused title track for Dub Africa, also considered too extreme for the structure at the time. * Bangin' Interlude: Made for Dragon Chaser, and went unused due to an inability to mix it properly. * Advanced Tinnitus: Made after Dub Africa's completion; every single track from Dub Africa layered on top of each other, not meant to be included in any main album. Named after its intense volume. * Smack: The only full, original track from the trilogy that has original vocals, from Mr. Nasty. Not included due to original vocals breaking the intent of the trilogy. * Speed Demon: Originally in the place of Unoriginal on Dragon Chaser, left off because of length and because it was decided that Unoriginal fit better. The Orphans has not been released independently, only as part of the definitive release of the Africa Trilogy. This is meant to place a difference between a simple re-packaging and a full, uncut definitive edition.